Here's a photo of my drive side chain-stay Rik. Doesn't look like my bike has the field stand mount points like the factory illustration below. What are the two lugs between the pillion rest and the chain adjuster - sidecar mount points?
email (option): robert.g.elliott@gmail.com
Rik, you're a genius! It didn't take me more than a couple of hours searching old Commonwealth of Australia Gazettes online to find contracts awarded to private motorcycle dealers for Norton WD 16H motorcycles, Hazell and Moore in Sydney and Disney's of Melbourne! The timing of the Disney contract, April 1940, fits perfectly with the build date of my bike, June 1940. Your theory that the Norton factory stamped the name Disney where the inspection mark normally goes appears to be correct! At the least the genesis of my bike is now determined - now to figure out what happened at the end of its war service.
I wonder how many Nortons they would have purchased from the factory for GBP 8,725?
Many thanks for the tip!
email (option): robert.g.elliott@gmail.com
This is great news Rob! The amount of information that is available in Australia on line today is amazing!
Which website did you use? Trove? Could you use a search function or did you have to go through all the pages?
Any chance of doing a search for similar Royal Enfield or BSA entries? Now that would make my (and Henk's and Rob Miller's) day! 
Cheers,
Jan
email (option): wd.register@gmail.com
More or less the same situation with the Enfields. The Australian Army bought a batch of 75 "model L" (500cc side valve) motorcycles to "Military specification" through Brown Bros of London in August 1940. Some numbers are missing in the AWM ledgers, but also the factory ledgers seem to have some missing numbers... It would be nice to find some extra information in the Australian Archives! 
Cheers,
Jan
email (option): wd.register@gmail.com
For the record, this is the clamp on foot peg mount for the early 16H's. I managed to borrow one and get a few cast in gun metal, all machined up nicely by a friend. The field stand goes on the original foot peg mount. Ron
email (option): ronpier@talk21.com
Something for Jan, Rob and Henk - here are some Royal Enfield and BSA requisitions by the Commonwealth and filled by private motorcycle dealers. The big one is for GBP 13,521 to Finlay Bros Melbourne for BSA motor cycles. That would have bought a few bikes you would think....maybe 100 at wholesale price? Looks like the first half of 1940 was extremely busy as far as Commonwealth requisitioning for military equipment...including prophylactics :)
If you'd like to do your own searching:
Search on "trove.la.gov.au" for the motorcycle name, e.g. BSA - note: they're referred to as "motor cycles" (two words).
Filter for "Gazettes" and then decade (1940-1949) - you can be more specific and select the year, but that's not really necessary.
Trove will show that the records aren't available yet "coming soon" - but this is an error, and I've been told by the National Library where to access them.
Then go to the website for Commonwealth Legislation "legislation.gov.au"- strange location for the archives I know. From there look up "Gazettes", then "Historical" and find the Gazette edition that's listed in Trove. The next part is a bit tricky - don't take the page number you get from Trove for granted - sometimes it's a page or two out.
Yep, the amount of archival information available now is excellent.....pity I spent days at the Australian War Memorial Research Centre fruitlessly looking through the old fragile books a few years ago - still that sort of thing is character building...or so I'm told.
I should have started this post with a title like "Australian WW2 Military Motorcycle Requisitions"!
To say this is fun is an understatement!! I've learnt more in the last month about WW2 motorcycles than I have in the last 30 years.
email (option): robert.g.elliott@gmail.com
Righto, back to the main purpose of the post - the military markings.
Below is a Dispatch Rider's BSA back on home turf during the war - Sydney (from the AWM photo archives). Looks like the only marking on the home service bike's is the Army registration number on the petrol tank.
email (option): robert.g.elliott@gmail.com
Hi Rob,
Thank you so much for this very useful tutorial! I wouldn't have found this myself...
Just did another search. For the Enfields there's only one "important" entry in the Gazettes, the one that you also showed in your post above: Thursday 22 February 1940 (Issue No.34): "Requisition No. 8410.—Royal Enfield motor cycles, for Ordnance Stores, £1,763 4s. 2d.—Stewarts' Motor Cycles Pty. Ltd., Melbourne". The other "requisitions" that I found are for spare parts...
But as we've seen so often, this discovery brings us more new questions than answers! 
Enfield delivered a batch of 75 "model L" bikes ("Military specification") through London exporters Brown Bros in August 1940. And there was an Australian contract for 1.000 WD/C bikes, delivered from November 1940 until the autumn of 1941. The factory ledgers only mention "Australian Military" for this contract, no agent or importer / exporter. Neither the date of the Model L batch nor the WD/C contract seems to match the date of the Requisition... On top of that, £1.763 would have bought approximately 30 - 35 motorcycles in February 1940. Both the Model L and the WD/C batches were (much) bigger than that...
The other option would be that this is a batch of civilian motorcycles, impressed by the Government / Army. In that case they would no doubt also be listed in the AWM126 books, in between all the other civilian impressed entries. I have added all the Enfields in an Excell sheet, and added the information from the factory ledgers to each entry. When I check the names of the dealers in this list, they obviously all come from Australia, but the name Stewarts' doesn't appear in this list!
More research will be needed here!
Cheers,
Jan
email (option): wd.register@gmail.com
Below is a Dispatch Rider's BSA back on home turf during the war - Sydney (from the AWM photo archives). Looks like the only marking on the home service bike's is the Army registration number on the petrol tank.
AMF 14491 is a BSA M20 40639 ("W.D. TYPE U.K. ORDER 868") according to the AWM ledgers.
Cheers,
Jan
email (option): wd.register@gmail.com
Thank you so much for this very useful tutorial! I wouldn't have found this myself...
Just did another search. For the Enfields there's only one "important" entry in the Gazettes, the one that you also showed in your post above: Thursday 22 February 1940 (Issue No.34): "Requisition No. 8410.—Royal Enfield motor cycles, for Ordnance Stores, £1,763 4s. 2d.—Stewarts' Motor Cycles Pty. Ltd., Melbourne". The other "requisitions" that I found are for spare parts...
But as we've seen so often, this discovery brings us more new questions than answers!
Enfield delivered a batch of 75 "model L" bikes ("Military specification") through London exporters Brown Bros in August 1940. And there was an Australian contract for 1.000 WD/C bikes, delivered from November 1940 until the autumn of 1941. The factory ledgers only mention "Australian Military" for this contract, no agent or importer / exporter. Neither the date of the Model L batch nor the WD/C contract seems to match the date of the Requisition... On top of that, £1.763 would have bought approximately 30 - 35 motorcycles in February 1940. Both the Model L and the WD/C batches were (much) bigger than that...The other option would be that this is a batch of civilian motorcycles, impressed by the Government / Army. In that case they would no doubt also be listed in the AWM126 books, in between all the other civilian impressed entries. I have added all the Enfields in an Excell sheet, and added the information from the factory ledgers to each entry. When I check the names of the dealers in this list, they obviously all come from Australia, but the name Stewarts' doesn't appear in this list!
More research will be needed here!
Cheers,
Jan
I have just discovered that prior to the delivery of the 75 "military spec" model L motorcycles, Brown Bros sent another batch of 20 (civilian specification) Model L bikes to Australia. These bikes can be found in the AWM126 books. This batch was despatched from the factory on February 19th 1940 (destination Brown Bros, London). I wonder if these could be the bikes that Stewarts' delivered to the Army...? But: the 1940 Royal Enfield catalogue quotes a price of £63 s5 for the Model L. Twenty bikes would make a total of £1.265, not £1.763...
Had the price increased by February? Or did the £1.763 price include transport to Australia? I'm quite sure that these must be the bikes that were mentioned in the Gazette!Jan
email (option): wd.register@gmail.com
Hi Rik,
"If I could trouble you for one last thing, could you photograph your front fuel tank mount from the rear ? It is as yet unclear when the reinforcing rib was added" - Sorry, haven't figured out how to insert the previous post in the cool inserted box yet.
Here are the photos you requested - is this the right area you were wanting? Hope they answer your question:
email (option): robert.g.elliott@gmail.com
"If I could trouble you for one last thing, could you photograph your front fuel tank mount from the rear ? It is as yet unclear when the reinforcing rib was added" - Sorry, haven't figured out how to insert the previous post in the cool inserted box yet.
Hi Rob,
You have to use the "quote" button in the right hand corner of the original message...
Cheers,
Jan
email (option): wd.register@gmail.com
just saw this on the web: old bike australsia article on your bike:
https://www.shannons.com.au/club/news/old-bike-australasia-norton-16h-war-horse/
Rob, Thanks for the extra photos. You have the early, weaker tank mount (as have I on W4216). The earliest certain date that I have for the reinforced mount is Kostas' W19518 which dates from the latter part of 1940 so we're now a little closer to pinning down when the change actually occured.
The extra research seems to be paying dividends too. It will require further analysis to see how many of the W12000 series were delivered and to where. 'H&M' were certainly listed in the pre-war Norton ledgers but I don't recall them in connection with any military type machines.
The WD contract commencing at W14000 had a price per machine of £52-17-0. These were machines supplied delivered to UK destinations and with a two year (!!) guarantee. It's clear from civilian sales that prior to WW2, the overseas agents purchased ex-works and were responsible for transport and also for all warranties. Presumably they had a claim against the factory but the end-customer does not seem to have had. I think that we can therefore assume that Disney's paid Norton something less than £52, but charged the Australian Government considerably more !
We also don't know if these contracts included an agreed quantity of spares - UK WD contracts often had 10% spare engines and frames and 5% spare gearboxes.
Yours is the only survivor known in the W12000 series according to Rob vd B's lists and we know of no W11000s or W13000s.
Is mine the reinforced type? Frame W20330. Ron
email (option): ronpier@talk21.com
Below is a Dispatch Rider's BSA back on home turf during the war - Sydney (from the AWM photo archives). Looks like the only marking on the home service bike's is the Army registration number on the petrol tank.
I can quote chapter and verse on BEF markings but Australian vehicles outside of the Middle East are pretty much an unknown for me. It does certainly look from the images available on the AWM that there were, in general, neither 'Formation Signs' nor 'Arm of service' markings applied to vehicles in Austraia. However, they are likely to have been applied to the vehicles of units scheduled for departure.
We know from photographs that British units arriving in Singapore had the coloured Arm of service squares already applied but it is unclear if there were also formation signs.
Personally, I think that it would be a wonderful tribute to the men of the 8th Division who suffered so much if you were to apply the emu of 8th Div. It certainly looks as if your bike at some point had something to do with that posting.
I have to say, seeing the decent condition of the lugs, there is no way that it has survived a post-war existence in the make-do-and-mend regions of the pacific prior to repatriation.
The ledgers seem to make it clear that it was taken off strength in Australia so in all probability, it never went overseas or must have returned prior to 1942. Did any Australian units travel to Singapore in 1941 and return with equipment ?
Yes Rik. My 16H came to me in civy trim with quite a few early features but fitted with pannier rack and pillion seat etc. So I decided to depict the bike as being brought up to a later war specification. My 1940 M20 is the same! Not so important for me as I have other bikes that I've devoted time and effort to make period factory correct....
And it's so handy having panniers.
I did have a matching pair of pannier toolboxes and kick myself for letting them go, just in case I felt the need to convert it back to original spec Ron
email (option): ronpier@talk21.com
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did a search and don't think its been posted before :
heres alink to the history of Finaly bros in Melbourne:
http://www.finlaybrothershistory.info/page46.html
has two photos - one of which I have seen on here : WM20's ready for delivery
and a reminisces of some one who worked there :
An employee of Finlay Brothers who began work in the firm's Workshop during the wartime era of 1942 feels that they are probably B.S.A. M20 500cc side valve motorcycles - a model used extensively by the British forces - and recalls that:
"The new bikes arrived in knocked down form and had to be assembled oil added road tested etc."
"The Brownout headlight fitting was standard."
"With the return of the 9th. Divvy from the M.E. [Middle East] early 1943 to fight in N.G. there was a great influx of bikes they bought back with them for repairs to the Finlay's workshop, they had had a tough life in the deserts over there. I worked on later shipments of [B.S.A.'s] and WLA. Harleys with the arrival of the [Americans]."1. Brian Lanyon, personal communication, May 9, 2013.
